Earlier this year, we formed a new ministry team, The Pastoral Care Ministry Team. This team, complete with former chaplains, current chaplains, social workers, retired ministers, and ministers-in-training, started the process of dreaming about how to not only start building a more robust system to offer layers of support for our congregation, but also equip everyone in our congregation to understand how to best care for one another on a regular basis. One thing that has stood out to me over the past few months is the amount of care our congregation offers to each other on a regular basis: in Sunday school classes, hallways conversations, committee and ministry team meetings, deacons meetings, connecting with each other over a meal or a cup of coffee, making phone calls, writing cards, or popping by to check on someone at their house. Pastoral Care is woven into every interaction you encounter at First on Fifth. What a gift!
Beyond the work of the Pastoral Care Ministry Team, I invite you to consider how YOU are participating in the holy work of caring for others.
Pastoral care means embracing the whole person and recognizing that each of us carries unique experiences, struggles, hopes, and questions. We care for one another not because we always agree, but because each person bears the image of God and deserves dignity, compassion, and respect. Sometimes care looks like offering a listening ear. Sometimes it means sitting with someone in uncertainty. And sometimes it means having a courageous conversation grounded in love. When we ask difficult questions of each other, share concerns, or respectfully challenge one another, we create opportunities to grow in understanding, deepen relationships, and live more faithfully into our shared values.
One of the greatest gifts we can offer one another is the assurance that we do not have to navigate life alone. Pastoral care is so much more than visiting someone who is sick, offering a prayer during a difficult season, or providing comfort in times of grief. It is the ongoing practice of showing up for one another and creating a community where every person is seen, valued, and loved.
We are called to be more than a congregation that gathers for worship each week. We are called to be a beloved community that walks alongside one another through life’s joys and sorrows. As we practice pastoral care, may we continue building a church where honesty is welcomed, differences are approached with curiosity, compassion guides our words and actions, and love roots us firmly together through all the changing seasons of life.
You are loved – seriously!
-Pastor Amy
